The authors analyze five rounds of
National Sample Survey data covering 1983, 1987/8, 1993/4,
1999/0, and 2004/5 to explore the relationship between rural
diversification and poverty. Poverty in rural India declined
at a modest rate during this period. The authors provide
region-level estimates that illustrate considerable
geographic heterogeneity in this progress. Poverty estimates
correlate well with region-level data on changes in
agricultural wage rates. Agricultural labor remains the
preserve of the uneducated and also to a large extent of the
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Although agricultural
labor grew as a share of total economic activity over the
first four rounds, it had fallen back to the levels observed
at the beginning of the survey period by 2004. This
all-India trajectory masks widely varying trends across
states. During this period, the rural non-farm sector grew
modestly, mainly between the last two survey rounds. Regular
non-farm employment remains largely associated with
education levels and social status that are rare among the
poor. However...

This paper analyzes how the
employment/productivity profile of growth and its sectoral
pattern are correlated with poverty reduction. The authors
use a sample of 104 short-run growth spells in developing
countries, between 1980 and 2001. They also identify some
conditions of the labor market and the economic environment
that are associated with employment-intensive growth or
specific sectoral growth. The results show that, in the
short run, although the aggregate employment-rate intensity
of growth does not matter for poverty reduction any more
than the aggregate productivity intensity of growth, the
sectoral pattern of employment growth and productivity
growth is important. Employment-intensive growth in the
secondary sector is associated with decreases in poverty,
while employment-intensive growth in agriculture is
correlated with poverty increases. Similarly,
productivity-intensive growth in agriculture is associated
with decreases in poverty. Although the study does not
address causality, coincidence of these phenomena in this
large sample of heterogeneous countries and periods suggests
that...

Using cross-country and panel regressions, the authors show that financial sector development significantly reduces undernourishment (hunger), largely through gaining farmers and others access to productivity-enhancing equipment, translating into beneficial income and general effects. They show specifically that a deeper financial sector leads to higher agricultural productivity, including higher cereal yields, through increased fertilizer and tractor use. Higher productivity in turn leads to lower undernourishment. The results are robust to various specifications and econometric tests and imply that a 1 percentage point increase in private credit to GDP reduces undernourishment by 0.22-2.45 percentage points, or about one-quarter the impact of GDP per capita.

This paper analyzes heterogeneity among
the self-employed in 74 developing countries, representing
two-thirds of the population of the developing world. After
profiling how worker characteristics vary by employment
status, it classifies self-employed workers outside
agriculture as "successful" or
"unsuccessful" entrepreneurs, based on two
measures of success: whether the worker is an employer, and
whether the worker resides in a non-poor household. Four
main findings emerge. First, jobs exhibit a clear pecking
order, with household welfare and worker education highest
for employers, followed by wage and salaried employees,
non-agricultural own-account workers, non-agricultural
unpaid family workers, and finally agricultural workers.
Second, a substantial minority of own-account workers reside
in non-poor households, suggesting that their profits are
often a secondary source of household income. Third, as per
capita income increases, the structure of employment shifts
rapidly, first out of agriculture into unsuccessful
non-agricultural self-employment...

Contrary to conventional economic theories, the relationship between income growth and agricultural employment is extremely diverse, even among regions starting from similar levels of development, such as Asia and Africa. Due to its labor-intensive Green Revolution and strong farm–nonfarm linkages, Asia's development path is mostly characterized by fast growth with relatively slow agricultural exits. In contrast to Asia, urban biased policies, low rural population density, and high rates of population growth have led a number of African countries down a path of slow economic growth with surprisingly rapid agricultural exits. Despite this divergence both continents now face daunting employment problems. Asia appears to be increasingly vulnerable to rising inequality, slower job creation, and shrinking farm sizes, suggesting that Asian governments need to refocus on integrating smallholders and lagging regions into increasingly commercialized rural and urban economies. Africa, in contrast, has yet to achieve its own Green Revolution, which would still be a highly effective tool for job creation and poverty reduction. However, the diversity of its endowments and its tighter budget constraints mean that agricultural development strategies in Africa need to be highly context specific...

This policy note examines the policy and
investment framework between 2003 and 2010, resulting sector
performance and the priorities for future development. It
draws attention to the need to refocus on completing the
fundamental reforms and investments on which
Kyrgyzstan's early successes were built. These include
further development of land market, building rural finance
markets, further public investment and institutional
development in the irrigation sector, encouraging greater
private investment in the seeds sector and machinery
services, public-private partnerships for advisory service
provision, completion of ongoing reforms in pasture
management, development of veterinary services and improving
the business environment for private investment in
agro-processing. The policy Note discusses the
government's approach to achieving greater food
security, which centers on food self-sufficiency and
discusses why this is not the best route to raising low
rural incomes - the root cause of food insecurity. The
report discusses some of the policies conceived after the
food price crisis...

This review's objectives were to
examine the structure and performance of the agricultural
research and extension systems (public and private) at the
central and provincial levels, identify successes as well as
constraints to improving the system s effectiveness for
fostering innovation, and propose options for further policy
and institutional development, drawing on lessons from
international experience. The review focused principally on
nonplantation crops, although its main recommendations apply
across the agricultural sector. This synthesis report
summarizes the main findings of the review and builds upon
them by adding some new elements. The conflict in Sri Lanka
is explicitly recognized. Additionally, the implications of
changes in the wider agricultural context for agricultural
research and extension are explored, and have led to the
adoption of an innovation systems perspective to organize
the major findings

Modern fruit sector development in Chile
led to agricultural employment for women, though usually
only as temporary workers and often at a piece rate.
Nonetheless, fruit sector employment offered women access to
income and personal fulfillment previously lacking. The
authors link the fruit sector to improving female and family
economic welfare in rural Chile and changing gender
relations. Using a unique longitudinal data set, they
examine women's decisions regarding labor force
participation and employment, their earnings and
contributions to household income, and their attitudes
toward employment to understand how new opportunities are
changing women, their households, and the rural sector.

Fourteen years of civil conflict
(1989-2003) have destroyed Liberia's social and
economic infrastructure and brought the economy nearly to a
halt. Workers who came of age during the conflict are
largely unskilled, and the supply of workers exceeds demand
by a substantial margin. The negative effects of
unemployment, underemployment, and low productivity on
economic growth have made employment the most urgent demand
of the population and the top priority for Government
action. This report offers guidance to the Government of
Liberia in its development of a more strategic approach
toward increasing productivity and employment, in order to
achieve its pro-poor growth objectives. This report includes
seven sections: employment is key for poverty reduction; one
in five workers is unemployed or underemployed; the
structure of Liberia's economy limits prospects for
formal sector employment; transformation of the agriculture
sector is essential for pro-poor growth; investment and job
growth in the formal sector are constrained by three main
factors; labor-intensive public works programs are necessary
for the very poor; and education and training must be
improved to enhance employability.

This paper uses a three-round
4,000-household panel from Andhra Pradesh together with
administrative data to explore short and medium-term poverty
and welfare effects of the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme. Triple difference estimates suggest that
participants significantly increase consumption (protein and
energy intake) in the short run and accumulate more
nonfinancial assets in the medium term. Direct benefits
exceed program-related transfers and are most pronounced for
scheduled castes and tribes and households supplying casual
labor. Asset creation via program-induced land improvements
is consistent with a medium-term increase in assets by
nonparticipants and increases in wage income in excess of
program cost.

Agriculture has made major contributions
to China's economic growth and poverty reduction, but
the literature has rarely focused on the institutional
factors that might underpin such structural transformation
and productivity. This paper aims to fill that gap. Drawing
on an 8-year panel of 1,200 households in six key provinces,
it explores the impact of government land reallocations and
formal land-use certificates on agricultural productivity
growth, as well as the likelihood of households to exit from
agriculture or send family members to the non-farm sector.
It finds that land tenure insecurity, measured by the
history of past land reallocations, discourages households
from quitting agriculture. The recognition of land rights
through formal certificates encourages the temporary
migration of rural labor. Both factors have a large impact
on productivity (at about 30 percent each), mainly by
encouraging market-based land transfers. A sustained
increase in non-agricultural opportunities will likely
reinforce the importance of secure land tenure...

Recruiting and retaining leaders and public servants at the grass-roots level in developing countries creates a potential tension between providing sufficient returns to attract talent and limiting the scope for excessive rent-seeking behavior. In China, researchers have frequently argued that village cadres, who are the lowest level of administrators in rural areas, exploit personal political status for economic gain. Much existing research, however, compares the earnings of cadre and non-cadre households in rural China without controlling for unobserved dimensions of ability that are also correlated with success as entrepreneurs or in non-agricultural activities. The findings of this paper suggest a measurable return to cadre status, but the magnitudes are not large and provide only a modest incentive to participate in village-level government. The paper does not find evidence that households of village cadres earn significant rents from having a family member who is a cadre. Given the increasing returns to non-agricultural employment since China's economic reforms began, it is not surprising that the returns to working as a village cadre have also increased over time. Returns to cadre-status are derived both from direct compensation and subsidies for cadres and indirectly through returns earned in off-farm employment from businesses and economic activities managed by villages.

This paper provides evidence on the
effects of agricultural productivity on wage rates, labor
supply to market oriented activities, and labor allocation
between own farming and wage labor in agriculture. To guide
the empirical work, this paper develops a general
equilibrium model that underscores the role of reallocation
of family labor engaged in the production of non-marketed
services at home (`home production'). The model
predicts positive effects of a favorable agricultural
productivity shock on wages and income, but the effect on
hired labor is ambiguous; it depends on the strength of
reallocation of labor from home to market production by
labor surplus and deficit households. Taking rainfall
variations as a measure of shock to agricultural
productivity, and using subdistrict level panel data from
Bangladesh, this paper finds significant positive effects of
a favorable rainfall shock on agricultural wages, labor
supply to market work, and per capita household expenditure.
The share of hired labor in contrast declines substantially
in response to a favorable productivity shock...

Economic growth, job creation, and
development are central to the decade of transformation
(2015-25) and long-term security for the people of
Afghanistan. The Bank and the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) recognize that agriculture
and rural development are a key to inclusive growth, and
hence need renewed vigor and strategic long-term
investments. Further, the Bank and the GoIRA acknowledge
that increases in agricultural productivity and market
access for smallholders are critical for rural development,
job creation, and food security in Afghanistan. Sections two
and three of this report describe the agricultural sector
and its current and potential roles in the Afghan economy,
and present the rationale for choosing certain areas and
subsectors for a selective 'first mover' strategy
to achieve early gains. Section four outlines the
constraints and potential in each of the three value chains
proposed for the selective strategy, irrigated wheat,
intensive livestock production, and horticulture. Section
five describes cross-cutting constraints and how best to
address them...

There is little doubt that economic
growth contributes significantly to poverty reduction;
however, countries clearly differ in the degree to which
income growth translates into reduced levels of poverty.
Although cross-country estimates suggest that differences in
the responsiveness of poverty to income growth account for a
small fraction of overall differences in poverty changes
across countries, from the point of view of an individual
country these differences may have significant implications
for poverty reduction, especially in the short term. The
report is structured into eight chapters, beginning with
this introduction. Chapter two describes the data and the
main definitions used in this report. Chapter three provides
the socioeconomic context of the study, with a particular
emphasis on growth, poverty, and labor market
characteristics. Chapter four takes a look at the linkages
between macro and microeconomic data by reviewing the ways
in which changes in aggregate and sectoral labor
productivity translate into individual earnings as gathered
from the household surveys. Chapter five also reviews the
relationships between productivity and earnings by looking
at the linkages between changes in aggregate and sectoral
labor productivity data (macro) and changes in individual
earnings as gathered from the household surveys (micro).
Chapter six examines the origins and determining factors of
household earnings and employment and assesses their impact
on poverty and poverty reduction. Chapter seven analyzes the
individual and household characteristics that are associated
with having either 'good' jobs or 'bad'
jobs and reviews the question of whether there may be
barriers preventing the movement of workers from bad to good
labor market segments. Finally...

Critical choices must now be made if
growth is to be sustained. Significant potential exists for
future growth, but bringing out this potential poses a major
challenge for government policy. Agricultural strategy must
shift its focus towards support for continuous productivity
growth by peasant farms in a conducive marketing
environment. Key priorities include completion of land
reforms (especially in the North); fundamental restructuring
and reorientation of public agricultural services, with
greater emphasis on private service delivery and cost
recovery; and a shift in agricultural public expenditures
toward support for private commodity markets and
private-sector based systems for technology transfer. In
addition, irrigation rehabilitation, operation and
maintenance, and cost recovery should continue to receive
attention and support. These measures will need to be
complemented by broader rural development measures - most
importantly the rehabilitation of basic infrastructure in
rural areas - in a manner that supports the
Government's policy of fiscal and administrative
decentralization. Development of rural infrastructure that
is locally planned...